They call themselves “Safety In Numbers”, or “The S.I.N. Patrol.” The volunteer group’s primary function is to provide protection on the streets and sidewalks outside of Salt Lake City’s gay nightclubs.

Beatings of gay men in Utah have made headlines in recent months. Most notably Dane Hall, who was assaulted outside of Club Sound in the early morning hours of August 26th. No suspects have been named or arrested in the incident.

“There’s been a lot of people complaining there’s not enough police coverage or security in the clubs,” said Joshua Barnes who started S.I.N. “The police do a good job, but they can’t be everywhere. We thought rather than just complain, we’d just do something. And the simplest thing we could do is just be here. Be an extra set of eyes, an extra body.”

The organization has over 140 members who connect through Facebook, go out in small groups and keep a blog of their activities. Most are gay men in their 20’s like Chris Deuel.

“I was looking for ways to give back to the community and I like that this was a sensible way to prevent a major problem,” Deuel said.

A typical night for S.I.N. starts with something resembling a small party. They meet at a member’s home. There’s music, laughter, and decisions about what to wear.

“We dress up just to draw attention away from other people, we can handle it better than they can,” said Deuel.

In a matter of moments the men transform into what looks like a cast of discarded Disney characters. One guy looks like an overgrown leprechaun, one squeezes into a black and white leotard, and another emerges from the bathroom wearing an ugly green dress with shoulder pads. Joshua dons thigh high boots, shorts, a robe, and a headdress. Someone asked why he was wearing so many belts. “In case all this fashion busts loose” he joked. As he shows off his ensemble, he points out an accessory. “A little pepper spray just in case.” Then it’s off to the clubs.

In sharp contrast to the colorful costumes of the S.I.N. Patrol, the streets in the vicinity of 200 South and 600 West are dimly lit. Gay bars have dotted the landscape in this part of Salt Lake City for decades. By day it’s an industrial area with a bus depot and trains criss-crossing the blocks. At night, only the clubs are open. Most of them have no parking lots, requiring patrons to walk a block or more to their destinations on busy nights.

Joshua talked about the first time he came here. “I drove up from Provo, looked around, drove around the block a few times, and I turned around and went home. It was too scary.” He hopes to make the experience less intimidating for others.

“We volunteer every Friday and we just walk people to their cars that are alone. It’s the only night of the week really for 18 year olds and up to come and find out who they are and express that,” Deuel said.

Dane Hall was 20 years old at the time of his attack. And Dane’s incident, Chris said, wasn’t the only one.

“We’ve gone, like, six weeks in a row with something that’s happened in this area. Two weeks ago there was a fight between two girls. The week before someone got hurt going down that way. That was one that wasn’t reported,” he said.

To document after-hour happenings, patrol members carry cell phones. On September 23rd, an encounter with one angry individual was captured on video via phone and posted on YouTube. In the clip, a man stands face to face with S.I.N. members and can be heard shouting, “I would never disgrace my family wearing a dress!” A member of the patrol responds “My mother loves it!” A security guard from Club Sound intervenes in the nick of time just as the confrontation looks to be turning physical. On that night, Club Sound hosted a rock concert in addition to their regular eighteen and over gay night. Inside, massive rooms divided the crowds, but outside the different demographics mixed.

Riley Welsh, the S.I.N. member seen in the video seen staring down the angry man down and getting a shove recalled, “Just seems like he had a lot of anger that he wanted to get out.”

This is reminiscent of what Dane Hall said in his first interview with Fox 13 News. When asked if he though he was the victim of a hate crime, Hall responded “I think it could have been gay bashing but personally, I think it was four guys drunk and angry and just wanted to fight.”

Statistically, Salt Lake isn’t a particularly violent city. During our interviews, members of the S.I.N. Patrol acknowledged this, noting that Salt Lake on the whole is “fairly gay-friendly”. But, Chris added, “This area has been a hot spot lately.”

With a camera rolling, we soon saw exactly what he was talking about. Our crew was mid-interview with Joshua Barnes, walking the block between Club Sound and another gay bar, the Trapp, when it happened. Yards ahead, one man struck another. We caught up to Jake Culley, holding his hand to his cheek. “That guy just came up and punched me in the face.” he told us. And it wasn’t over. A few people on the sidewalk, including S.I.N. Patrol volunteers, stood their ground as the suspect came back without saying a word and started swinging at them. Fortunately, his punches weren’t connecting very well. Joshua advanced upon the suspect and took him down in a headlock. “The harder you move the harder I’m gonna squeeze. Did you hear me?” he said to the man on the ground.

One member of the patrol called 9-1-1, while others assisted in disarming the suspect of a knife tucked in his clothing.

Minutes later police arrived, but the suspect wasn’t done fighting. As officers lifted him from the ground he kicked them, leaving a small mark on one’s face. As three uniformed officers moved the still-struggling suspect to a squad car, S.I.N. member Riley, dressed in a tank top and skirt, assisted. “I was just nervous at that point that it wasn’t gonna be ok so I just decided to jump in.”

Richard Daniel Martinez was booked into jail on charges of assault, resisting an officer, and assault by a prisoner.

Lt. Bryce Johnson of the Salt Lake City Police Department explained on scene that Martinez would not be charged with a hate crime because it was unclear what motivated the attack, or if he knew anything about his targets.

With the night winding down Joshua remarked, “It would be great if we got to a point where things settled down.. I’d be happy if we didn’t have to do this ever…but we’ll do it as long as we need to.”

It is imperative that we marshal our resources to educate the faithful about the church’s teachings on these matters, and to vigorously organize and support a grass-roots effort to get out the vote to support the passage of this amendment.

I’ve thought quite a lot about the severity of opposition from the Catholic Church toward same-sex marriage and equal rights for gay people in general. This is bigger than a few passages in the Bible. This is a zealous commitment of time and resources to reach out beyond their congregations to force their beliefs on non-Catholics. If they were generally of this practice across the breadth of their doctrine, then it would be just another example of a church pushing its faith on others. It’s not. They don’t commit all resources to ending legal divorce, enacting Sunday closing laws, or getting Ash Wednesday made a national holiday. No, gay issues are different.

I’ve come to only one reasonable explanation. Most Roman Catholic priests must be gay (or if not most, enough to be a major force in the church hierarchy). I’m hardly the first person to have thought or observed this (also here, here, here, and here). This speculation isn’t insulting of the Church or the priesthood. There’s nothing wrong with being gay or being a gay priest. There is something wrong with fighting against the equal rights of gay people.

In my estimation this is a result of two things: the extreme stigmatization of homosexuality in Catholic faith communities, and the celibacy of priests. Consider the situation of the young, gay male, growing up in a Catholic family, church, and community, especially in decades or even centuries past. He knows with absolute certainty that his family and community will never tolerate him living as a gay man, to the point of excommunication or even death. He has been told and believes that what he feels inside is a sin. His family, especially his mother, have high expectations of him to marry and have children. His mother is always trying to set him up with nice girls. And they are nice girls. He is running out of excuses to avoid these relationships. What are his options? Enter a sham marriage? Face his family’s disappointment from living alone or leaving his home and community?

What about the priesthood? By becoming a priest, he will be required to be celibate, which he has resigned himself to anyway, so he doesn’t have to marry a woman. He will be honoring God, gain a position of high status in his church and community, have employment for life that does not require hard labor, and bring honor to his family. How can he lose?

I submit that the clergy has been a refuge from marriage for young, gay, Catholic men for centuries, so much so, in fact, that most members of the Catholic clergy today are gay, and this has been true for a very long time. The celibacy of priests has been an extreme disincentive for young strait men to enter the priesthood, while being an attraction to young gay men.

It would be naïve to think that this persistent assault on the gay community is in no way affected by the fact that these are mostly gay men driving it. Other religions speak against homosexuality, but few rally their entire church to fight against the rights of gay people outside their church. One simple theory is that it’s just basic gay bashing by closeted gay men trying to stay closeted. Another is basic self-loathing. Their faith gives them a deep shame of what they are, so they attack other gays as a vicarious form of self-flagellation.

Their options? One would be to lift the celibacy of priests. There is nothing in scripture that demands it. The problem is that most priests now are gay, and if they did this, priests would go from an expectation of celibacy to an expectation of marriage overnight. Any parish priest would be seen as the supreme catch for nearly every single woman in his congregation. These men would be fending off female advances left and right, putting them right back in the situation they entered the priesthood to escape in the first place. Few in church leadership will foist this on themselves, and most of the priests they have now would probably leave the clergy. In the short run, it would decimate the Church before they could recruit enough new priests to recover.

Their other option? Try to maintain the status quo, dig in their heals and stop the progress of history. Try to thwart any attempts to raise the social acceptability of homosexuality and give young gay men other options. Fight like hell to maximize the social stigma that drives gay men into the priesthood to keep their church alive. This appears to be the choice they have made.

The last option would be to both end celibacy for priests and officially embrace gay people. Their priests could come out, stay in the church, and they could begin to attract more strait men to enter the priesthood. Throw in the ordination of women and they just might make it. Somehow, I can’t see millennia-old social inertia changing that quickly.

The Catholic Church is fading. To save it, the church leadership either has to give up the lives they’ve built for themselves, or they have to hold down and demonize gay people. They are not fighting to stop sin or protect marriage. They are fighting to save their church, and they are desperate.

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Hello all. As many of you know I have been under the weather. Plus I stopped one of my medications and did it my way…which takes will power but is hard on the body. Plus with the weather changes, and doing more sitting than ever I totally locked up the muscles in my back.

I decided to stop taking Lyrica. I have been on high doses, the side effects are hard to live with, and the benefits are minimal for my high levels of pain. Add to that it is expensive and I couldn’t see paying for it when the benefits were not all that great while the side effects were hampering my ability to enjoy my life. Normally they take your dose up slowly and steady till you reach a high dose. Then about the same coming off it in reverse. Not me, when I decided not to take it , I just stopped.

At the same time I got a dose of what we think was food poison. I was miserable, running a fever and green as could be. My stomach was roiling and revolting on me, and I was afraid of losing control of my bowels. ( great conversation we are having EH? )

Plus I added in my four allergy shots a week, Ron going away just when I felt so crappy, and having to work and take care of things with out him.

See it all hit at once. Now lets add in this mornings doings. This morning after a restless night, Ron took me to my pain doctor. I was in bad shape as my back is worse. The muscles are just clenched right up, swollen, and Hard. They wont release and are twisting my body. They decided they had to anesthesia the muscles in my back with injections and also inject steroids.

See the way they described it to me, the muscles are stuck in a spasm, and because of that they are not getting enough blood into them to clean out the lactic acid. As the lactic acid builds it causes more spasms and clenching. A rather painful and vicious circle.

Now I think I can say I have learned over the years to take pain. But as I sat there as he inserted ( JAMMED ) needles into the clenched painful muscles I almost lost it. A shot in to muscles are more painful the more clenched up the muscle, and mine were as tight as they could. I told him at the sixth one I was seriously rethinking the shot idea. He thought I was joking. I was sitting in a chair with my back to him and no support except my own strength, but It was all I could muster to stay as still as I could while it felt like he was sliding a dull knife in and out of my back. I managed to make it through it but my systolic blood pressure went from 119 to over 150 and that was with medication to both control the pressure and to numb my back.

I will have to think long and hard if they want to do this again. Very long. Many Hugs

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Scottie

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